Motorhead Manager on Lemmy’s Health: ‘He Has Great Days and Then He F—- It Up’

Legendary Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister has been battling various health-related issues over the past year, leaving many fans worried about the beloved musician. Conflicting reports on Lemmy's health have been surfacing ever since.

In an interview, Motorhead manager Todd Singerman detailed how Lemmy has been "up and down."

In June of this year, Lemmy had an implantable defibrillator put into his chest shortly before suffering from a hematoma, which led to Motorhead canceling various tour dates.

At the 2013 Wacken Festival, Lemmy cut Motorhead's performance short due to exhaustion, and Kilmister has been fairly off the radar since, despite the band releasing the stellar album 'Aftershock.'

Singerman recently spoke to Decibel about Lemmy's health, going in-depth about what's been going on behind the scenes. "He's got a really bad diabetic problem, and it changes on a daily basis," says Singerman. "A lot of it is just fighting the bad habits, the things that he's not supposed to do anymore. He's stopped smoking, but he probably sneaks Jack and Coke here and there. He'd be lying to you if he said he stopped. He's been trying to substitute it with wine, and I'm sure he's slowed down on the speed. He thinks wine's better than Jack, but it's still got tons of sugar, you know? He doesn't grasp that he's just trading one demon for the other. That was the compromise with the doctors, by the way — trade the Jack for the wine. But he doesn't tell them he's drinking two f---ing bottles, either. These are the battles we're up against. Keep in mind, he's been doing all this stuff on a daily basis since Hendrix. And it's coming to roost. It's sad for him, because he's gotten away with this stuff for all this time."

Singerman also reveals that it was not Lemmy who decided to cancel Motorhead's 2013 European tour dates. "I made them cancel because Lemmy's not ready," Singerman explains. "He didn't wanna cancel. But what was gonna go down is what happened in Europe over the summer. See, he f---ed up in Europe. He was supposed to rest for three months, and he refused. He ended up doing that show [Wacken], which he wasn't supposed to do, and it ended up being 105 degrees out there. He's playing direct in the f---ing sun. The only thing I'm proud of him for is stopping when it didn't feel good. That was smart of him. The bottom line is that he needs to find a balance and then live that balance for a few months. But we can't find the balance yet. He has great days and then he f---s it up. And when you f--- up, you go backwards." [via Blabbermouth]

To read the full interview with Singerman, pick up the latest issue of Decibel Magazine.